Marvell All-CMOS Low Power, Integrated 802.11b Baseband

By
iApplianceWeb
(02/04/02, 11:06:30 AM EDT)

Marvell announced an all-CMOS, low power IEEE 802.11b baseband processor (88W8200) and radio frequency IC (88W8000) chipset, accelerating the rapid deployment of wireless LAN networking. The Company's wireless products are expected to drive the availability and affordability of wireless LAN networking, including notebook PCs, PDAs, and consumer PCs and appliances.

The Marvell all-CMOS solution solves technical challenges, including range, power consumption and manufacturability by executing advanced algorithms in the 88W8200's full custom DSP engine, coupled with the 88W8000, the industry's first true 802.11b single-chip radio design.

The 88W8000 RF transceiver is the industry's first true single-chip CMOS RF-to-baseband transceiver for IEEE 802.11b WLAN applications. The 88W8000 integrates power amplifier (PA), low noise amplifier (LNA), variable gain amplifier (VGA), voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), programmable frequency synthesizer, and RF up/down converters (mixers), which are functions typically implemented in as many as five chips.

To increase network coverage for communication between access points and mobile stations, the 88W8000 is the first 802.11b RF IC to integrate a powerful on-chip power amplifier with output power up to +20dBm (100mW). Competitive devices require an external PA to achieve this level of performance.

The Marvell 88W8200 baseband processor works seamlessly with the 88W8000 RF IC to provide a complete 802.11b wireless physical layer solution. The Marvell 88W8200 baseband processor, part of the 2.4 GHz 802.11b chipset, is a full-custom design that allows for recovery of weaker and more distorted signals under severe conditions, while significantly reducing power consumption.

The 88W8200's numerous technological achievements include advanced antenna diversity control that allows the mobile station to select the optimum-receiving antenna. Advanced DSP signal processing in the 88W8200 conducts real-time multi-path signal analysis, suppressing reflections and distortion, to achieve the highest signal clarity and bandwidth. The Marvell baseband and RF chipset solution also supports a higher performance 22 Mbps mode.

The Marvell 88W8000 RF chip, available in a thin 64-pin QFN package, and the 88W8200 baseband processor, available in a 56-lead QFN package, are now sampling.